Beto O'Rourke livestreams his haircut, pokes fun at 'nasty' ear hair

Democrat Beto O'Rourke jumped into the 2020 presidential race Thursday, shaking up the already packed field and pledging to win over voters from across the political spectrum as he tries to translate his sudden celebrity into a White House bid. (March 14)
AP

Beto O’Rourke isn’t just struggling in the polls. He's also battling with the well-known middle-aged man's plague of ear hair.

Back home in El Paso after several days on the campaign trail, O’Rourke said he was badly in need of a haircut. Naturally, he decided to livestream it on Facebook and use his time in the chair to hold an “impromptu townhall.”

As O’Rourke’s barber snipped away, the former Texas congressman updated his audience on his children. (His daughter Molly was taking a standardized test. His son Ulysses has a basketball game Wednesday night, and his son Henry has a baseball game coming up. All three of his children are excited to wrap up the school year in a couple of weeks.)

When his barber at Chema’s barbershop began maneuvering the clippers around O’Rourke left ear, the Democratic presidential hopeful decided to offer a truth that many men of his generation and older can to attest to: Ear hair is troublesome.

“We’re cutting out some of this ear hair that you get when you get older,” O’Rourke, 46, said. “It grows out of your ears, and if you don’t get it cut, it can be nasty.”

O’Rourke has frequently used livestreaming to try to connect with voters, using livestream platforms to talk to his social media followers directly during his unsuccessful bid to beat Texas Sen. Ted Cruz last year.

He even livestreamed a dentist visit in January, a moment not long before announcing his run for the White House that some ribbed him for veering into oversharing.

During his visit at Chema’s on Wednesday, O’Rourke took viewer questions about campaigning in Puerto Rico (He wants to do it soon.), his thoughts on the skyrocketing price of higher education (Make community college free and launch programs to wipe out student debt.), and what he thought about going on ABC’s “The View” earlier this week (He liked it!).

As he was riffing on higher education, a customer named Robert walked in to the barber shop.

“You’re the, what is it, the guy on TV, is it the governor? … Mayor?” Robert asked.

“No, no, I had run for Senate … now I’m running for president,” O’Rourke responded.